sound design
...needed. Sound has so much potential to help add to the overall feeling of the show. “For the theatre sound designer to unlock this potential, one must understand how the audience experiences the theatre soundscape” (Brown). There is a two dimensional sound feeling in theatre. You have your venue which is the theatre itself, then the environment, and then the inhabitants which are all real (Brown). The actual performance is the imaginary or synthetic sounds that will help the audience get into the actual production. The designer has to put that audience into a place that is not the norm for them. The goal is for them to get lost in the production and not realize they are sitting in a theatre watching a show but to get them to become one with the production (Gillete). With the size of theatres getting larger and larger, sound designers have to change according to the amount people attending the show. In the past to create a sound effect people had to physically make that sound themselves on stage. Now with recording capabilities the sound board operator can play that sound on a cd deck or hard disk. Just like the change of sound effects, theatres have changed in many different ways as well. With touring shows designers have to realize that the venue will change night to night and the board operator will have to take the judgment into their own hands. The problem with touring shows is that some of the venues will be very small but the board operator will mix the show the same as in the large venue. This will result in hearing loss and maybe just a bad experience for the audience (DeTogne). The audience having an unpleasant experience is something that no production company is willing to deal with. The goal is to design a show that can work both in a large venue and also in the smaller venue (Gillete). For some examples, a heavy metal concert is meant to be played loud. Regardless of the size of the venue the show is meant to be loud. For theatrical shows the audience is in it for the show and the story not necessarily the music. This means that the theatrical experience should be played softer and thus easier for the audience to listen to comfortably. The new age of sound designing is going to be changing dramatically in the near future. Just like the digital boom with cell phones, theatrical shows will begin to go digital very soon. With more breakthroughs in audio technology, the more there will be for designers to advance their sound designs. Soon there will be sound coming from all sides of the audience; there will be so mu...